Daily AncestorRancher
A rancher owned or ran a ranch, raising cattle, sheep or horses on large stretches of grazing land, mostly in the American West.
The word ranch comes from Spanish rancho. Ranchers, also called cattlemen or stockgrowers, raised grazing livestock, chiefly in Mexico, the western United States and western Canada, often on their own land plus leased public range.
The 1900 census instructions asked enumerators to keep a stock raiser separate from a stock herder or drover who worked for him, so the hired hands on a ranch may appear as herders or cowboys.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1880 to 1910 census
Jas. McCord, 47, Ranchman, Texas
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Daily Ancestor. "Rancher." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/rancher. Last checked 2026-10-10.